To "focus on making CPO," this supplier declined Apple's request for additional orders.

A supplier of optical lenses rejected Apple’s request to increase orders for variable aperture lenses for the iPhone 18 Pro, citing priority development of its CPO business. Such actions are rare within Apple’s supply chain. Reportedly, Apple asked Largan Precision to increase supply of variable aperture lenses, but was explicitly refused. Largan Precision stated that the company is currently focusing its resources on the CPO business. This technology integrates optical transceivers directly into the SoC package, shortening electrical routing and reducing latency and thermal loss. With its massive market scale, Apple typically dominates production scheduling among its suppliers, who seldom say “no” to its demands. Apple’s request to increase orders signals optimism for the sales prospects of the iPhone 18 series; the supplier’s rare refusal, meanwhile, reflects the rising strategic appeal of the CPO sector. Largan Precision’s strategic decision echoes the market popularity of the CPO sector. Since April 1, the Wind CPO Index has risen more than 26%. Domestic CPO leader Zhongji Xuchuang’s share price has surged nearly 30% in the same period, repeatedly hitting new highs and becoming one of the most closely watched directions in the technology sector recently. [Image] [Image] Betting on CPO, Voluntarily Forgoing Apple Orders The core logic behind Largan Precision’s refusal is its strategic bet on the CPO sector. By deeply integrating optical transceivers with chip packaging, CPO technology can significantly reduce transmission latency and energy consumption in data center and high-performance computing environments, being regarded as a key direction for the next-generation optical interconnect architecture. It is worth noting that Largan Precision is a secondary supplier in the iPhone 18 Pro variable aperture lens supply chain, with Sunny Optical as the primary supplier. This means Largan Precision's refusal has limited actual impact on Apple’s overall supply rhythm, but the underlying signal—where a core supplier actively places CPO business above Apple’s orders—remains significant for the market. Under the AI Infrastructure Tide, CPO Commercialization Accelerates Driven by the wave of cloud-side AI infrastructure upgrades, commercialization of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) technology continues to draw high market attention. According to a recent in-depth report on the optical module industry released by Western Securities R&D Center, commercialization of CPO is accelerating notably, propelled by leading manufacturers such as Nvidia and Broadcom. CPO integrates the optical engine and switch ASIC chip into the same substrate, fundamentally alleviating bottlenecks in traditional data center network architectures. Its core advantages are reflected in three dimensions: 1. Significantly Reduced Power Consumption. CPO saves over 50% energy compared to traditional DSP optical modules. The Nvidia Q3450 CPO consumes only 4-5 watts per 800G bandwidth, with a savings rate of up to 73%. 2. Overcoming Copper Cable Expansion Limitations. CPO supports inter-rack expansion; Nvidia Spectrum 6800 can theoretically connect 131,072 GPUs. 3. Noticeable Improvement in Signal Integrity. Electrical signal transmission range shrinks from 15-30 cm to several tens of millimeters. Mean time between failures (MTBF) reaches 2.6 million hours, far exceeding the 500,000-1 million hours of pluggable modules. As the demand for bandwidth and energy efficiency grows with AI large model training and inference, the need for high-speed optical interconnect solutions in data centers keeps increasing, and industrialization of CPO as the next-generation solution is accelerating. The shift of resources towards CPO by this optical lens supplier is a microcosm of industry recognition of the sector’s long-term growth potential. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risks; investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not considered users’ specific investment objectives, financial situations, or needs. Users should determine whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article suit their particular circumstances. Investment based on this is at your own risk.